1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus including an image forming device and a cooling device.
2. Related Art
Electrophotographic image forming apparatuses form images following processes for image formation. Specifically, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus performs image formation following processes of: uniformly charging a surface of an image bearer such as a photoconductor; forming optical image data as a latent image on the previously charged surface of the image bearer; developing the latent image into a visible image by supplying toner from a developing device; transferring the visible image onto a recording medium such as a transfer paper directly or via an intermediate transfer body such as an intermediate transfer belt; and fixing the visible image to the recording medium in a fixing device.
In such an image forming apparatus, a temperature in an image forming part including the above-described image forming devices increases due to generation of heat by heat from the fixing device and/or by friction between a roller shaft and a roller bearing during a printing operation performed by the image forming devices. If the temperature in the image forming part exceeds a toner melting point, toner in the image forming part adheres. Further, a recent promotion of a reduction in size of units and components used for an image forming apparatus causes the temperature in the image forming part to increase more easily.
In order to avoid such adhesion of toner in the image forming part, an image forming apparatus includes a cooling fan to cool the inside of the image forming part.
Further, the image forming apparatus further includes a thermistor to detect a temperature of the photoconductor drum and a temperature in the vicinity of the intermediate transfer body. Such the image forming apparatus controls a speed of rotation of the cooling fan based on detection results obtained by the thermistor.